This is no clearer than it is with the progression system, which is still just as busted as it was in the original. Unfortunately, outside of revamping traits and adding additional classes, little else was done to improve Rogue Legacy 2 over its predecessor. The original was arguably more funny, but the increased emphasis on mechanical diversity is highly appreciated in a genre built upon repetition. This is a huge upgrade over the original title where your character would randomly fart every 30 seconds. As an example, if you have IBS your character’s spell slot will be replaced with a giant Wario-esque fart explosion that can be used as a double jump. Traits have also been revamped, so they’re generally more useful. A bevy of extra classes have been added, each featuring different weapons and abilities, to help runs feel more distinct. However, nothing else changes, with NPCs notably never aging, so it’s mostly window dressing instead of a unique facet of the game’s storytelling.Ĭhrono anomalies aside, the passing of the torch has been revamped in Rogue Legacy 2 to contain notably more variety than the previous game. This adds a nice bit of narrative context to the constant cycle of death, which isn’t present in most other roguelikes. That covers the rogue half of the name, but what about the legacy? Well, instead of playing the same character, you’ll play a descendent of the previous hero whenever you die. You play an armor clad chad exploring randomly generated dungeons with some good ol’ fashioned 2D side-scrolling action. So, here’s a somewhat middling take on a somewhat middling sequel to one of the most influential roguelikes of the past decade.įor those who aren’t familiar with it, Rogue Legacy 2 is a roguelike-platformer hybrid that takes its name very literally. Plus, new stumbling blocks have been added to the mix with changes that were meant to address shortcomings of the original. While I concede that a few quality of life changes were applied, Rogue Legacy 2 largely falls into the same pitfalls as the original. Unfortunately, the resulting game is a sequel in the same way that new versions of Fifa or Splatoon are: little has changed. Unwilling to be outdone by newer games, it was announced Rogue Legacy would be receiving a numbered sequel, which spent a stint of time in Steam Early Access before releasing earlier this year. This doesn’t make it bad, but it does mean that it feels comparatively lacking when held next to any of its modern contemporaries. Rogue Legacy is very much a game of its time. The roguelike genre has evolved past it, with newer entries containing greater variety, depth of gameplay, and features. However, for as influential as Rogue Legacy was, it hasn’t aged gracefully. Despite this, Rogue Legacy was met with a wave of success both critically and commercially, inspiring other developers to adopt a similar style of progression in the decade since its original release. It was a huge departure from the progress loss on death that many still consider to be a defining facet of the genre. There’s permadeath, and random dungeon layouts, like Rogue, but it was one of the first roguelikes to feature permanent progression. Speaking of legacy, one of the earliest successes to embrace this new interpretation of the roguelike was Rogue Legacy. Since then, we’ve seen an explosion of new experiences flourish with creators no longer being shackled to Rogue’s legacy. However, games like The Binding of Isaac, Spelunky, and FTL: Faster Than Light challenged the perception of what it meant to be “ like” Rogue. For decades, this genre had an extremely specific definition, which led to a narrow selection of titles trying to ape the success of Rogue. One of my personal favourite experiments to come from this period was the modernization of the roguelike. If you followed the indie scene during this time, you’d have likely seen some bonkers shit. As a result, the industry experienced a creative high, and low point simultaneously. By skirting traditional publishing, these smaller developers could release experimental titles without the same level of financial risk as their AAA counterpart. However, we also saw digital distribution normalized, and the collective rise of the indie game. This led to widespread stagnation across the industry’s major players, who settled into making fewer games with established formulas. Big budget titles become increasingly risk averse due to the increased costs of development. The 2010s were a weird time for video games.
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